


Heart's Desire

by Minervas_Revenge



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 23:47:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7409953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minervas_Revenge/pseuds/Minervas_Revenge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione explores Hogwarts in her spare time and rediscovers the Mirror of Erised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart's Desire

 

_Hermione stood in front of the mirror with her eyes closed. She knew that wizards and witches wasted away gazing into the Mirror of Erised and that’s why she didn’t look. Besides, she had a pretty good idea what her reflection would show._

 

They were fresh professors at the beginning of the school year and they were elected to head their former houses. Lucius Malfoy was surprisingly civil towards Hermione. She returned the gesture and an unlikely friendship was forged as they shared teaching tactics and horror stories.

 

At the faculty Christmas party, Hermione drank too much. She flirted with Lucius – an action she thought to be fairly harmless but he responded by seducing her. It felt oddly natural to continue their physical relationship. By unspoken agreement, she kept their affair secret.

 

Pillow talk ranged from unruly students to Narcissa’s suicide. How unusual that Hermione came to trust a former Death Eater and that he seemed to trust her in return. It was as if they were hired models for the Ministry’s Post-Voldemort Blanket Forgiveness Act. And, for awhile, Hermione was content.

 

Transfiguration was one of the most difficult subjects to learn but Hermione enjoyed the challenge of instructing it to her students, conveying the concepts in multiple ways so that every child understood them.

 

In her spare time, she would tutor students that needed help or, her favorite; she would explore the newly renovated castle and grounds, taking notes as she went. That was how she found the mirror.

 

Harry had described it and Hermione recognized it as the Mirror of Erised at once. She charmed a conjured sheet to cover it, intending to report it to Headmistress McGonagall.

 

Being a clever young woman, Hermione recognized that she was growing rather attached to Lucius. She began spending more time with her lover. She would accompany him on Hogsmeade weekends and help him oversee detentions (which he seemed quite fond of doing).

 

One night, Lucius confessed to her that he’d been very much in love with his wife and only seduced Hermione to see if he would feel anything. It stung a little to know that he hadn’t done it because he was attracted to her.

 

Perhaps, subconsciously, it was Lucius’ admission that returned Hermione to the mirror. She was wandering the castle aimlessly, avoiding her rooms in the event that Lucius was in them waiting for her. And then Hermione found herself blinking at the shrouded mirror. Her first thought was that she really needed to let Minerva know it was so easily located. Then she began to wonder what she’d see if she took a peek.

 

Would Headmistress Granger be staring serenely back at her..? Or maybe Hermione Granger the honored, bestselling author..? No, no. Neither of those ambitions made much sense to her anymore.

 

After working with children for almost an entire school year, something soft had blossomed in Hermione. She was endeared to her students by their quirky behavior and sponge-like minds. She began to yearn for a family of her own.

 

Despite the foolishness of the idea, her mind had paraded scenarios of love and marriage through her thoughts… Marriage to the wizard she’d been growing increasingly close to…

 

Like a sensible woman should, she ignored the fantasies.

 

But standing before the Mirror of Erised forced Hermione to realize the truth of her situation. She was falling in love with Lucius Malfoy and he was unlikely to propose, let alone start a family with her.

 

Quiet tears slid down Hermione’s face as she drew her wand. She cast a breeze that blew the fabric to the stone floor and closed her eyes, unsure that she wanted to acknowledge the deepest longing of her heart. Harry had been forced to stop visiting the mirror because Dumbledore moved it. Surely Hermione could control herself well enough to satisfy her curiosity…

 

Suddenly, images from Hermione’s memory began flashing to the forefront of her brain. They were quite quick and she only caught a few as they zipped along: Dumbledore arriving to explain Hogwarts to her shocked parents, Boggart McGonagall telling her she’d failed all of her tests, striding into Gringotts as Bellatrix Lestrange, her first day as the Transfiguration professor and one more picture. This one wasn’t a memory but a creation of her imagination that burned and lived and breathed as brightly as if it were.

 

In it, Hermione stood content and heavily pregnant. A blond little boy clutched the folds of her robes and she comfortingly petted his head. He was the image of his father and half-brother. With his hands lovingly gripping her shoulders, Lucius stood behind her. The idyllic pose was precisely what she thought to see in the mirror. It faded from her mind as suddenly as the memories had come.

 

“I’m a bit old to start a family, Hermione,” Lucius said.

 

Hermione hadn’t realized Lucius was a Legilimens. She turned slowly to look at him, wiping under her eyes. She wasn’t ready to have that discussion with him. She’d only just faced that she might be in love with the man and it didn’t seem fair.

 

“It’s just a foolish fantasy,” she replied.

 

“What you see in that infamous mirror is not foolish,” he said darkly.

 

“But I haven’t looked,” she said.

 

“What was that vision, then?” he asked warily.

 

Hermione gave Lucius a tight smile and took his arm. She began leading him from the room, hopeful that he’d understand; “Only what _might be_ reflected.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Hermione Last Drabble Writer Standing competition, Round 3. Prompt 1: rare-pairs. 500 - 1,000 words.  
> Originally published: Jun 9, 2008


End file.
